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When it comes to science and biotech, the gender gap between men and women still persists. The UNESCO Science Report Towards 2030 in 2015 revealed that women made up only 28% of people holding positions in science and research.
Things have started to improve. Women make up 33.3% of all researchers, and only 1 in 5 in “cutting-edge fields” like artificial intelligence, according to recent UN data. Even so, “most countries, no matter their level of development, have not achieved gender equality in STEM,” explains the UN.
Though still underrepresented, women are leaders in biotechnology and the sciences and have paved the way for important developments. During Women’s History Month, we look at 12 women in science and biotech, in both history and the present day, you should know.
1. Elizabeth Blackwell
Elizabeth Blackwell was the first woman in the United States to have been granted an M.D. Despite being turned away by 10 medical schools due to her gender, she persisted and ultimately gained admission to Geneva Medical College in western New York. She went on to co-found the New York Infirmary for Indigent Women and Children in 1857 to serve the poor.
2. Jennifer A. Doudna
Jennifer A. Doudna is one of the winners of the 2020 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for her work in developing the CRISPR/Cas9 gene editing technique. Dr. Doudna and her collaborator, Dr. Emmanuelle Charpentier, published their research in a landmark 2012 paper in the journal Science, which showed they could isolate the components of CRISPR/Cas9, insert them in a test tube, and make specific edits to DNA. The first gene therapy developed with CRISPR, Vertex Pharmaceuticals’ CASGEVY, was approved in December 2023 to treat sickle cell disease.
We’ve been breeding #plants forever—now, #CRISPR makes the process faster and more precise, explains Jennifer Doudna @doudna_lab #BIODigital #geneediting #agriculture pic.twitter.com/52RAeBMgF1
— I Am Biotech (@IAmBiotech) June 16, 2021
3. Gertrude Elion
Gertrude Elion was a scientist and pharmacologist who developed medicines to treat leukemia and prevent kidney transplant rejection. Elion retired in 1983 but helped oversee the development of the first AIDS treatment, azidothymidine (AZT). In 1988, she shared the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine with George H. Hitchings and Sir James W. Black for their groundbreaking research methods that took a radical departure from the field’s previously used trial-and-error approach.
4. Rosalind Franklin
Rosalind Franklin’s research paved the way for biotechnology innovations such as synthetic biology, biobased manufacturing, and carbon capture and utilization. Her work was crucial to the discovery of DNA’s structure—which ultimately led to Francis Crick, James Watson, and Maurice Wilkins being awarded a Nobel Prize in 1962, a few years after Rosalind’s death from cancer at age 37. BIO’s Rosalind Franklin Award (sponsored by the Rosalind Franklin Society) is presented annually to a pioneering woman in the industrial biotechnology and agriculture sectors.
5. Ruby Hirose
Japanese-American biologist and biochemist Ruby Hirose overcame anti-Asian racism and violence to save countless lives with her groundbreaking research, which led to the development of the polio vaccine. Hirose was among 10 women in 1940 to be recognized by the American Chemical Society for accomplishments in chemistry.
6. Mary Putnam Jacobi
Mary Putnam Jacobi was an American doctor who was the first woman to study at L’École de Médecine in Paris. In 1872, she created the Association for the Advancement of the Medical Education of Women to address inequities in women’s medical education. She is also known for debunking sexist myths about menstruation, writing a paper refuting a Harvard professor’s book on the matter; her paper won Harvard’s Boylston Prize and helped advance the cause of women’s rights in the field of higher education.
7. Mae Jemison
Mae Jemison was the first African American woman to travel into space, making the journey in September 1992 on space shuttle Endeavor. After graduating high school at 16, she attended Stanford University and Cornell Medical School, where she earned her Doctorate in 1981. In 1987, she was accepted to NASA Astronaut Group 12, the first group chosen after the Challenger exploded. She currently leads 100 Year Starship, a joint program of NASA and the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) to research interstellar travel.
8. Katalin Karikó
Katalin Karikó is a Hungarian-American biochemist and an expert in RNA-mediated processes. She has been working on the creation of in vitro-transcribed mRNA for protein treatments. She co-founded RNARx where she served as its CEO from 2006 through 2013. She created the modified mRNA technology utilized in the COVID-19 infection-prevention vaccines manufactured by Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna alongside Dr. Drew Weissman.
9. Esther Lederberg
Esther Lederberg laid the groundwork for discoveries on genetic inheritance in bacteria, gene regulation, and genetic recombination. Her work on replica plating played a part in her first husband Joshua Lederberg winning the 1958 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine along with George Beadle and Edward Tatum. (Esther received no credit for the discovery.) A microbiologist, she is perhaps best known for discovering a virus that infects bacteria—called the lambda bacteriophage.
10. Barbara McClintock
Barbara McClintock won a Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1983 for discovering mobile genetic elements—paving the way for breakthroughs in plant breeding and genetic engineering. When she won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, McClintock became the first woman to be the sole winner of the award.
11. Sara Little Turnbull
If you used face masks during the COVID-19 pandemic, thank Sara Little Turnbull, whose 1972 face mask design led to the medical-grade N95. 3M hired her to explore uses for a new melded polymer fiber material, which she realized might block disease particles. Turnbull also consulted for DuPont, Pfizer, and NASA, designing things like medication delivery systems, space suits, and household cleaning products.
12. Tu Youyou
The first mainland Chinese scientist and the first Chinese woman to win a Nobel Prize, pharmaceutical chemist Tu Youyou discovered a treatment in the 1970s, artemisinin, for malaria, based on her study of traditional Chinese medicine. She was one of three individuals to win the 2015 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for the discovery, though she received a half share. In her 90s as of this writing, she is the chief scientist at the China Academy of Traditional Chinese Medicine.
